


Trying Again

by shes_an_oddbird



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: And Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, because fitzsimmons deserve it, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-29
Updated: 2015-10-29
Packaged: 2018-04-28 20:15:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5104358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shes_an_oddbird/pseuds/shes_an_oddbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set in the not too far off future. When everything is sorting it's self out, Fitz and Jemma talk about what happens next for them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trying Again

**Author's Note:**

> I'm very ambiguous about how Fitz and Simmons get to the point that they are at in this story. At this point I haven't got a clue what the writers are doing and thinking nor do I know exactly what I want to happen. Except this conversation of course.

It had been a long and chaotic few days. Portals opening. Aliens of all sorts roaming the Playgound. Hydra and Ward making a terrible mess of quite literally everything. She didn’t know how many times she would have to reiterate that she was not a medical doctor before the team would understand. She guessed it didn’t help that she was always first to volunteer her help.

And then there was Will. And then there wasn’t. And she was left in a state of contemplation. Her feelings, her wants and her needs whatever they may be. So understandable nobody tried to drag her out of bed for a while.

Fitz knocked before coming in. She knew it was him without rolling over to look. He always knocked the same. And if that wasn’t enough the faint smell of tea wafted over when he set the mug down on her nightstand. The others had tried to make her tea before but they never made it quite right. May would sometimes get close but never just right.

He took a seat on the edge of her bed, she rolled slightly because of the dip. The base of her spine pressed against the base of his. She could see him now if she wanted to just by tilting her head slightly.

Instead she turned her face into her pillow. She didn’t want to look at him when she asked.

“Fitz?”

“Yeah?”

He was so quiet. It had driven her nearly crazy as they had worked to open the portal; to the point that she had actually goaded him into yelling at her. Then she regretted it, not because she didn’t think she deserved it but because the frustration he had bottled up triggered the effects of his aphasia and he struggled to find words to explain exactly what he was feeling and when he did find them he stumbled over them.

“Do you still-still-“

“Yes.”

“But the same as you did?” He couldn’t possibly still feel the same.

“I do.”

She sat up faster than she should have considering how long she had been lying down. Her head spun for a moment and the tears that had been being soaked up by her pillow now instead ran down her cheeks. “HOW?! How would you possibly still love me after everything I’ve done that’s hurt you?”

She probably should have sat back. His face couldn’t have been but a few inches from her own but she needed to see his thought process as he found an answer. She had to understand how it could ever be possible to think she was worth going through all this suffering for. Unfortunately he had an answer ready and the only look that crossed his face was ‘how could I not?’

“You’ve never done anything to intentionally hurt me Jemma and all of your actions that have I can’t hold them against you, not when I know why you did them.”

Trying to see it his way wasn’t easy. He made her giving up hope of ever coming home seem completely reasonable. But why was she allowed to give up when he didn’t? He never gave up and she always did. When the virus infected her, when she missed the portal, even leaving him for Hydra. She had thought she had done it to help him but all she had done was given up believing that she could.

“Stop Jemma.”

Her eyes refocused. Fitz’s stern expression formed in front of her. “What?”

“You’re doubting yourself again and I’m not sure I can make it through the justification speech _again_.” That was okay, she knew it by heart. _It’s okay to lose hope when trapped on an unknown planet. It was okay to seek comfort where you could find it. You went to Hydra because you thought it was best._ And the real kicker, _you have no obligation to feel the same way I do._

“Jemma?”

“Yes?”

“Do you still-“ he trailed off this time. She supposed it was fair of him to ask even if it did seem unnecessary with the events of the past few days.

“I do Fitz, I love you more and more with ever second that passes. More than any other thing and more than anyone in the world, in any world.” She grimaced at her addition, to think that that was something that actually had real value when she said it rather than just being something tacked on to exaggerate a point still astounded her.

It made him smile though and her heart beat faster at the sight. Her stomach swooped and her fingers tingled and her grimace faded into a smile of her own.

“So what do we do now?” She asked.

He shrugged. “We try again from the start.”

“What’s the start?”

He shifted to face her. “The start, I guess we were technically rivals first, but maybe we skip that one, then lab partners, then friends and then best friends, and then something else, something more than that.” More than that. Like boyfriend and girlfriend. And then husband and wife. Maybe they’d even be Mum and Dad down the line. Titles wouldn’t even be necessary. Just Fitz and Simmons would do. Or Fitzsimmons. With a hyphen? No, no, she liked their names smooshed together, as close as possible.

“Jemma?” He placed a hand on hers, looking mildly worried that her attention had wandered off.

She turned her hand over so that they were palm to palm. “How long do you think it’ll be before we get there, not another ten years I hope – not that I can’t wait if that’s what it takes. I’m learning from the best how not to give up.” She sniffled and used her free hand to wipe at a new wave of tears.

He turned his eyes on their hands, slowly locking them together. “No not that long but we both need time I think, so we’ll see as we go I guess, it could be ten days or ten weeks, maybe ten months.”

She barely makes it ten seconds. She leaned forward and placed a quick gentle kiss on his lips. So quick he had just a moment to respond but in that moment she felt nothing but hope bubbling up in every cell of her body. When she pulled back he looked confused but overwhelming pleased. “In case it does take that long.” She explains.

It doesn’t.

After that she asks him what they should do next and he suggests they catch up on all the Doctor Who they missed. So within ten minutes they’re sitting side by side in front of his laptop and by hour ten they’ve broken any unspoken personal space boundaries in favor of comfort. By ten days they’ve caught up, it would have been sooner had they not had actual work to do. And by ten weeks Bobbi, Mack and Lance now understand what Daisy and Coulson had referred to as the Fitzsimmons dynamic because they once more finish each other’s thoughts and sentences. Ten days from the ten weeks mark Jemma asks Fitz to dinner and ten seconds later he says yes. Ten hours from then they are being seated and yes the restaurant is fancy and yes Fitz pulls out her chair and yes she wears a dress but no they don’t run out of things to talk about, in fact ten minutes in they haven’t even picked up their menus and the waiter watches somewhat amused as they accidentally fall into conversion again while trying to pick their meals.

Ten months from their conversation Jemma asks Fitz what he thinks of marriage in the most casual way she can manage because it’s probably too soon to bring it up but she is curious if he thinks it makes since with their jobs and all. Ten months from their date he asks her out to dinner. Ten minutes into dinner he asks her to marry him. It takes just a tenth of a second for her to say yes.

Ten years later they’re happy. So much so they made others around them feel happy too. The struggles to get to that point are just memories. Sometimes they creep up and Jemma stares at the night sky without realizing it and Fitz occasionally needs a moment to find the right words but they work through the stumbles together. Always together.

Fitzsimmons.

No hyphen. 


End file.
